Three Kisses
by PSI-Triforce
Summary: When a bizarre accident at breakfast ends with Starfire in the medical bay, it's up to the rest of the team to figure out what's wrong, and up to Raven in particular to ease the conscience of the changeling who's convinced it's his fault. One-shot, silly Beast Boy/Raven fluff.


If you had asked any of the other four Titans who the happiest, friendliest, kindest, most selfless and pure-hearted and radiant person they knew was, they would have answered with no hesitation: Starfire. Whether she was sparring with Robin, comparing earthly cuisine with her own Tamaranean fare with Cyborg, listening to Beast Boy's jokes or simply meditating with Raven, she had a unique way of bringing her unlimited joyful energy to anything she was involved with, and each of her friends would eternally be grateful for that.

Unfortunately, this didn't make one activity any less daunting.

Shopping.

It wasn't for any particularly stereotypical reason. It was simply that she found everything so overwhelmingly _interesting_ that she could spend hours looking through ranges of curtain rods, doorknob repair kits, porcelain figures of geese; if it existed in any shape or form in Jump City shopping mall, Starfire would happily spend hours "ooh"-ing and "aah"-ing over it. It was this same intrigue that made her such a good listener whenever her friends had something to talk about, but each of them had spent at least one afternoon having been dragged on one of her impromptu visits with the goal of 'Leaning Earth's culture' that mostly involved them sitting on the floor while she spent all afternoon looking at fly-swatters, napkin dispensers, and once, a picture book about bread.

Still, she was a valued member of the team, and more importantly, a trusted friend. So even though it had never been spoken about, there was an unwritten rota that the rest of the team followed whenever Starfire spoke about taking another trip to 'the mall of shopping'. And while everyone would still try to avoid the task as best they could, sooner or later someone would step up, usually around the time that Starfire began to make the sad kitten face that everyone suspected she had learned from Beast Boy.

It was on this morning that Starfire's planned trip to the mall would cause… repercussions.

.

"Friends!" she announced as they were all eating breakfast, Robin with his ham and eggs, Cyborg with seven uniquely prepared kinds of meat, Beast Boy with waffles and sliced tofu and Raven with a bowl of porridge and a cup of herbal tea. "If one of you is not 'busy' today, then might I ask you to accompany me to the mall of shopping? A new store has opened specialising in 'car-pets'-" (she elongated the syllables as if they were alien to her, which, in her defence, they were) "-and I would love to dive into this wonderful new world!"

None of them were listening. As soon as she had said the word 'mall' they had all stopped mid-bite and started looking at each other with expressions of unbridled panic. Nobody knew whose turn it was to go with her. And so, as it often came down to in moments of great stress, it became a matter of every Titan for themselves.

"Oh, shoot!" started Robin before anyone else had the chance to think of something. "The Jump City Police Department have asked me to look over some cases. Another time, maybe?"

"I just got some new parts in for the T-Car! Gotta keep my baby in tip-top shape, you know?" Cyborg jumped in.

That left Beast Boy and Raven. Beast Boy, as usual, was the slowest to wake up, and the gears just weren't turning fast enough in his head to come up with a plausible excuse. Raven was trying to think of any excuse that wasn't "I have to meditate" which she had used several times before, and while no-one would accuse her of lying, it was bound to start sounding suspicious eventually.

"Raven?" asked Starfire hopefully.

"I have to meditate." She blurted out apologetically. Which left only one person.

"… Uhh…" Beast Boy finally spoke.

"Beast Boy! Would you be able to join me today?" Starfire asked again, her eyes full of hope. Beast Boy's mouth opened and closed several times without making a sound. Nervously scratching the back of his head, he looked around the table. Everyone was looking at him expectantly, which irritated him a little; they clearly didn't want to let Starfire down, just so long as _they_ didn't have to do anything themselves. But he hesitated for a little too long, and Starfire started to understand.

"Oh, if you are unable to come, then please do not feel bad, I will simply go on another day." reassured Starfire. The fact that her voice contained no trace of a guilt-trip only made it an even more effective guilt-trip. Taking one look at her expression as the excitement slowly drained from her face, Beast Boy grumbled, and then admitted defeat.

"Uh, nope, I don't think I have anything going on today. Sure, I'll go with you, Star!"

Starfire's face lit up. "Oh, how joyous!" she shouted as she launched herself from her seat, twirling in the air before landing next to Beast Boy and crushing him in a hug. He struggled to breathe, but took the opportunity to shoot dirty looks at the other three Titans, who were all trying their best to look innocent. "Thank you, friend!" she squealed, before releasing him from her painful embrace. "I truly do appreciate this." And then Starfire gave a completely sincere smile, the kind that made him feel like maybe traipsing through a carpet store for hours this afternoon wasn't the worst thing that he could be doing.

"No problem, Star. Give me an hour to get ready?"

"Of course!" she answered happily.

And then, several things happened in quick succession.

Starfire leant forwards to give Beast Boy a chaste kiss on the cheek to show her appreciation. Beast Boy suddenly turned to face her to say that he could probably be ready sooner. She leaned. He turned. What was meant to be a friendly peck on the cheek was now an entirely romantic-looking kiss on the lips.

Beast Boy's eyes widened in shock as he made a panicky noise similar to "Mmmnghmmm!" without pulling away. Starfire didn't move. Robin was gripping his cutlery so tight that it could have shattered. Raven felt a pang of envy, followed by confusion as to why she was feeling envious, and then noticed Robin's expression and realised that her empathic abilities had given her a brief taste of his jealousy. At least, she told herself that that was the cause. Cyborg looked as if he was trying to calculate the exact moment when it would be appropriate to burst out laughing.

After barely three or four seconds, enough for Beast Boy and Starfire to completely regain their senses, they broke away from each other. The room was completely silent as everyone processed what had just happened.

And then, Starfire made a startling noise – an uncanny mixture of coughing and choking – and collapsed on the floor.

"Starfire!" Robin shouted as he vaulted out of his seat towards her. Cyborg and Raven also stood up, while Beast Boy's hands flew into the air as if he had been caught committing a crime.

"ididn'tdoanythingipromise!" he said far too quickly. Nobody responded; they were all too focussed on Starfire, who was still lying on the floor with her eyes closed. Robin was already checking her pulse and Cyborg was scanning her vital signs. Raven's hands glowed with magical energy as she searched Starfire's body for any injuries that required attention, but she found none. Beast Boy was the only one who couldn't help, which only made him feel more awkward.

"Pulse is normal." Robin stated, his voice a contradictory mixture of worry and relief.

"Nothing wrong with her vital signs either." Cyborg added, his eyes darting back and forth over the live results of a scan he had already started.

"I can't sense any injuries, internal or otherwise." Raven concluded. All three of the Titans checking on Starfire had found no reason for her current state, and slowly they all turned to face the only other Titan in the room, who was now sweating rather heavily. Other than the occasional groan of discomfort from Starfire, there was complete silence.

"… What… what did you _do_ to her?" Robin asked, trying not to sound accusatory and failing miserably at it.

"I… I-" Beast Boy stammered. "I… don't know! Is she – I – I didn't – what happened? Is she ok?"

"You tell me!" Robin barked back, "One second she kisses you, the next…" at a loss for words, Robin wildly gestured at his incapacitated Tamaranean teammate.

"I swear, I don't know why this is happening," Beast Boy replied in a panic. Raven could already see the hints of anxious tears in his eyes, which is why she decided to take charge before the situation could get any worse.

"We need to take her to the medical bay." She stated calmly. That would buy everyone some time to calm down. Even though she could easily carry Starfire with her magic, and Cyborg was physically the strongest, she knew that Robin would insist on lifting Starfire himself and carrying her, bridal style, to the medical bay unassisted. And while the Boy Wonder was no stranger to multitasking, Raven had a hunch that he would be too distracted while carrying his obvious crush to continue questioning Beast Boy.

Robin and Cyborg nodded, and Robin lifted Starfire exactly as Raven had predicted and almost all of them began the brisk walk to the medical wing of Titans Tower. Raven was nearly out of the room before she realised that they were missing a member. Casting a brief glance back, she saw that Beast Boy was still rooted to the spot, just as panicky and nervous as before.

"Come on." Raven tried not to let any emotions out, but couldn't help but let slip a little impatience.

Beast Boy didn't move. "Is… is she going to be okay?" he asked, sounding like a scared child.

"I'm sure she'll be fine," Raven replied, and she sounded like she believed it, even if she didn't. "Now come on, we might need your help."

"I _doubt_ it," Beast Boy muttered quietly, but began to walk after the rest of the team. Raven sighed internally. Beast Boy as his usual self was loud, overbearing and not as funny as he thought he was, but there was something about him when he was feeling low that reminded her of a kicked puppy. Still, the quickest way she could make him – and the whole team – feel better would be to figure out what had happened to Starfire. Closing her eyes, she chanted her mantra and her body was engulfed in dark energy as she teleported to the medical bay and began to arrange a bed for her friend's arrival.

.

Robin and Cyborg arrived barely twenty seconds afterwards, with Beast Boy trailing behind them. Raven had barely started to set up, but the bed was ready for Starfire to lie down in, and she wordlessly ushered in the team. Robin gently lay the Tamaranean down, and even through his mask, Raven could make out a hint of his expression, and remembered that Beast Boy wasn't the only one panicking right now. Cyborg got to work on a more detailed scan of Starfire's nervous system, and Raven once again tried to use her healing magic, but detected no wounds on Starfire's body.

"Starfire," she said in the cold but friendly way that only she could, "Can you hear us? Can you tell us anything?"

Starfire was still groaning as if she was experiencing a powerful migraine, but didn't respond otherwise. At least she was conscious.

"Alright. Beast Boy," Robin started, less emotionally-charged this time. The walk to the medical bay had given him a brief window to calm down, but he still needed answers. "Nobody is blaming you for this, or even saying that you had anything to do with it, but I need you to remember if anything like this has ever happened before."

Raven felt Beast Boy's anxiety rise sharply, albeit not to the same point it was at in the common room. "I'm trying, I really am, but… no. I don't know what's happening."

"You're absolutely sure? Anything, no matter how minor, could be useful to us right now."

"I swear Rob, I can't think of anything!"

Robin didn't want to have to intrude any further than necessary, but Starfire's wellbeing was his number one priority.

"Beast Boy… I don't mean to pry, but, you've… kissed people before, right?"

Beast Boy looked exactly as offended as you would expect from the many implications from that question, all of them negative. "Yes! Of course I have."

"And… this has never-"

"No! I think I would remember if I ended up putting someone in hospital by…" he drifted off. Robin appeared to back off with his questions, to everyone's relief, including his own. Cyborg was only half-listening, trying to finish his scan. Raven was still trying to get a reaction of any kind out of Starfire. Robin didn't know whether it was his detective instincts, idle curiosity or just nosiness, but before he think about it, he asked Beast Boy one more question.

"Who?"

"Huh?" Beast Boy stammered, looking as though he didn't understand the question, when he most likely did but just didn't want to answer it.

"Who have you… you know?" Robin asked again. His demeanour had changed from crime-fighting superhero to schoolyard gossip, but it was still a valid enough question in the circumstances.

Beast Boy began to blush and scratched the back of his head. "I don't know… like, my parents?" he paused for a second "And Rita from the Doom Patrol. I don't know, I was a kid!" he added, clearly unhappy at having to discuss this. Luckily for him, Robin was happy to let the conversation drop there, partly because there was no more relevant information to be gained, but mainly because Cyborg's scan was complete and he'd let out a confused "Hmm?" upon seeing the results.

"Cy, what's happening?" asked Robin. It was never a good sign when Cyborg didn't understand something.

"My scans are finishing up, and… there's a huge spike in brain activity."

"What?" Robin strode over to look at the results himself. Raven didn't bother; while she was adept at healing injuries with her magic, the technological side of it still baffled her, and Beast Boy stayed where he was stood for the same reason.

"I don't know why. Could be causing one heck of a headache, though."

Robin looked closer at the scans. "It looks like a lot of activity in the left hemisphere. I don't know how similar Tamaranean biology is to human, but that's the speech and lang-"

Starfire let out a louder moan of pain and Robin abandoned the scans to join Raven at her side.

"Starfire! Talk to us, please! Tell us what's wrong!"

Starfire's eyes opened for the first time since arriving in the medical bay, but they were unfocussed. It wasn't clear if she could identify her teammates or not. Robin called her name a few more times, then looked to Raven for approval to try harder. Raven nodded, and Robin gently leaned forwards and touched Starfire's face, easing it towards his own until they were facing each other. She looked frightened, as if she had woken up surrounded by strangers who she couldn't understand, so Robin spoke more softly.

"Starfire. It's us. Please, say something."

Starfire let out another quiet moan and her eyelids drooped. Her breathing was heavy and at first it seemed as if she hadn't heard a thing he'd said, but then she softly spoke a single word.

"… Matted."

She leaned away from Robin's hand and resumed lying on the bed with her eyes closed. She was clearly still conscious, as she continued to groan and began to rub her temple with both hands. Nobody quite understood what she had said.

"Matted?" Robin turned to Raven, then Cyborg. "Does anyone know what she's…" he didn't need to finish the question, but neither of them knew the answer. The only one he didn't ask was Beast Boy, who was still staring at Starfire nervously.

"Star," Robin began again, "please, can you tell us anything more about-"

Starfire rapidly turned her head from side to side, not in annoyance at the question but clearly in no small amount of pain. "Matted!" she gasped. "Matted, matted, matted." She continued to rub the sides of her head and murmured the same word to herself, over and over.

While the rest of the Titans were trying to figure out what she was talking about, something stirred within Beast Boy's mind. Something about the way that Starfire was saying that word, with a pause and a slight inflection every time. Something that brought to mind what she was saying, even though it had been years since he'd heard it before.

"… She's not saying 'matted'." He muttered, more to himself than to anyone else, but he'd chosen a moment when the other three had been silent, so they all turned to him as he continued. "She's saying 'ma tête'. It's French. 'My head'."

If the others had been shocked by this sudden revelation – from _Beast Boy _ of all people – then that was nothing compared to what he did next. He paused for a few seconds, as if struggling to recall something, and then spoke fluently to Starfire.

"Qu'est-ce qui ne va pas?" he asked. For the first time, Starfire seemed to recognize what she'd heard and looked straight towards Beast Boy, letting out a small sigh of relief that she had been understood.

"Ma tête… ça fait mal." She said weakly, but with a smile. Beast Boy smiled back, relieved that they could still communicate with each other.

Of the three other Titans observing this, it was a while before any of them spoke, but it was Cyborg who seemed to pull his jaw off the floor the quickest, and asked "Uh, B? For the rest of us?"

"Oh, right," Beast Boy replied, embarrassed, "I asked her what's wrong, she says her head hurts."

"In French?" Robin stammered, his voice unusually high-pitched. "Since when do you know French? Since when does _Starfire_ know French?" If he'd had a second more to think about, he would have realised the connection, but the next second, they were all distracted again. Contrary to her earlier painful groaning, Starfire let out a small giggle at the confusion on her teammates' faces.

"Oh, mis amigos…" she had a smile on her face.

Cyborg pointed an accusatory finger at her. "Ok, _that_ was not French. 'Amigos' is Spanish."

"And Portuguese," added Beast Boy, as if it was the most normal thing in the world. Cyborg, Robin and Raven continued to stare at him as if he had grown an extra head. Beast Boy wasn't paying them any attention though; snapping his fingers, looking as if he was focussing hard on trying to remember something, he suddenly said "Aha!" and purposefully strolled to Starfire's bedside.

"Cómo podemos ayudar?" he asked, leaving the others even more surprised than they had been. Upon realising that they were staring at him, he sheepishly turned and whispered, for their benefit "I'm asking if there's anything we can do to help."

The three continued to gawp at him. "Beast Boy," Robin eventually asked, "uh, when did you learn all of these-"

"Languages!" Raven exclaimed, then raised a hand over her mouth, slightly embarrassed to have shouted out so loudly. Clearing her throat, she repeated herself in a more restrained tone. "Languages. Starfire learns languages by kissing people. So this morning, when she accidentally kissed Beast Boy on the lips, she must have learned every language he knows, which is… apparently more than we thought."

Their reactions were mixed; Cyborg let out a relieved sigh of understanding, while Robin mentally kicked himself for not putting two and two together. Beast Boy had calmed down upon realising that he could help, but still look a little uncomfortable. Starfire looked as if she still didn't understand anything that anyone other than Beast Boy had said for the last five minutes.

"So, how many languages do you know?" asked Robin. Despite his teammates' powers, superhuman of supernatural, he didn't often feel overshadowed, but Beast Boy's multilingual abilities were beginning to do the trick.

"Um," Beast Boy started, awkwardly scratching the back of his head, "Not, like, _loads_ or anything. Just the biggies. French, German, Italian, uh, pretty much all of the big European ones. Chinese, Japanese… Arabic, a little Urdu… oh, and Latin." His tone changed to one of extreme disdain right at the end; clearly he didn't have a great deal of respect for that last one.

When he noticed that the team were staring at him in disbelief, he awkwardly felt the need to justify it. "When I was in the Doom Patrol, Mento wanted us to make sure that we could communicate with people from all around the world. I kind of had a knack for it."

While the rest of the team still felt extremely taken aback, Raven was quick to point out the relation to Starfire's condition. "So when you and Starfire kissed this morning, in five seconds she learnt, what, seventeen languages?" Beast Boy looked back at Starfire guiltily. Even if it had been accidental, this made him responsible for her condition. He turned back to Raven and nodded slowly.

"I guess if I learned all those languages at once, my head would probably hurt too." Cyborg opined.

"But... this means that she's going to be okay, right?" added Robin.

With the worst possible timing, Starfire gasped and clutched her head again. While the pain had temporarily subsided, her problem definitely wasn't solved. Closing her eyes and rocking from side to side, she gritted her teeth and was clearly trying to keep from screaming. Without opening her eyes, she choked out,

"Yuko wapi? Yuko wapi rafiki yangu wa kijani?"

Before the Titans even had the chance to ask Beast Boy what she was saying, and in what language, he took a step closer to the bed and replied "Nipo hapa, nipo hapa!" as if he was trying to comfort her. There was a slight pause before he remembered that his friends had no idea what he was talking about and he turned back to them with a small blush on his cheeks. "Swahili. She's asking for me, and I'm telling her that I'm here."

The rest of the team had nothing more to add, so they just waited in awkward silence. They were each dealing with the news in their own way; Robin, who knew several languages himself, felt slightly embarrassed that Beast Boy's understanding far outclassed his. Cyborg was trying to reconcile his best friend's newly-displayed intelligence with the immature teenager who still pouted whenever he lost a video game. Raven was beginning to suspect that this entire morning was a very well-planned prank that Beast Boy and Starfire were both in on.

Starfire continued to groan, but her cries grew weaker and softer as the pain seemed to slowly ebb away. Opening her eyes once more, she glanced at her friends and smiled. She seemed to notice and recognize all of them, and as she gently rubbed her throat and opened her mouth to speak, they thought that maybe this was all over.

...

"もっと近くに来て" she said, looking at Beast Boy.

"Oh, come on!" barked Robin frustratedly.

"何が問題ですか" replied Beast Boy.

"Oh, COME ON!" repeated Robin.

Starfire simply repeated what she had already said, and Beast Boy cautiously took a hold of her hand and leaned closer towards her. Without looking back, he explained to his team "She's, uh, asking me to come closer. I asked her what's wrong but she just said to come closer again." He leaned in until she was close enough to whisper to him, but that wasn't what she did.

With speed that would have made Barry Allen jealous, Starfire wrapped an arm around Beast Boy's head, pulled him closer until they were face to face, and locked lips with him. Their first kiss had been purely accidental, but this one was intentional – on her part, at least – and while it was hard to tell exactly what either of them were thinking, she seemed to let out a large sigh of satisfaction. Beast Boy, on the other hand, had been caught completely off-guard and was now panicking, but unable to escape her grip or her lips, was reduced to frantically waving his arms. Raven felt a pang of envy so sharp from Robin that it almost caused her physical pain, and Cyborg, having long since given up trying to understand what was happening this morning, looked as if he was in need of a full system reboot.

After twelve agonizingly slow seconds, Starfire released Beast Boy and, breathlessly stuttering something incomprehensible, he promptly stepped backwards, tripped over his own feet, and collapsed onto the floor, where he remained lying. Starfire let out a huge breath of relief and laid back on the bed, breathing slowly and rhythmically as she slowly regained her senses. The only sound in the room was Robin audibly gritting his teeth, until Starfire smiled, and finally spoke again.

"… Friends," she began with a smile, before slapping a hand over her mouth and leaning out of the bed to see if Beast Boy was alright.

"Beast Boy!" she shouted worriedly, and Cyborg hastily helped him back to his feet. He was slowly breathing in and out, similar to the way Starfire had. "I must do… the apologizing! It was absolutely _not_ the okay for me to have done that!" It was hard to tell whether Starfire was still having trouble recalling certain words or if she had returned to her usual, understandable but somewhat clunky manner of speaking.

Beast Boy was still too stunned to respond, so Cyborg did for him. "Hey, I don't think you need to apologize to him. Seems to me he didn't much mind it." Cyborg wisely stopped their instead of continuing what he thought. '_Robin, on the other hand…_'

"No!" Starfire was adamant. "It is wrong to… force such behaviour on other people, especially on a trusted friend. I am extremely sorry. Can you forgive me?"

Beast Boy's eyes had stopped spinning around in his head and although he was only still standing because he was leaning most of his weight on Cyborg, he was just barely able to formulate a response. "Uh… yeah, it's ok."

"What exactly… was that?" Robin asked, while doing such a bad job of hiding the envy in his voice that nobody else would believe he was even trying to.

"Oh, it is as friend Raven said," Starfire replied. "When we kissed for the first time, I learned many languages. It was… a lot to take in, all at once. I am afraid I am not used to processing such things. It was worse that I was unprepared."

"And what was… _that_ just now?" Robin would probably always refers to what had just happened as '_that_', and probably in the exact tone of voice he was using now, as if he was desperately hoping that the alarm would go off shortly so that he could beat the ever-loving snot out of someone or something.

"I had to kiss him a second time because the first was insufficient. I had learned several languages, but in bits and pieces. There were many large gaps in the knowledge I had received."

"Large gaps in knowledge, that sounds a lot more like Beast Boy to me." Raven uttered.

"So…" Beast Boy started awkwardly, "You're okay?"

Starfire's smile beamed as she nodded. "I am. I apologize for worrying you all."

Finally, the tension in the room dissipated. Starfire was back to normal, and even if it would take some time for Robin to work out his anger over this morning's events, everyone was happy and relieved that their friend was no longer in pain.

"So, how many new languages do you think you learned?" asked Cyborg, genuinely interested.

"Plenty!" replied Starfire, composing herself for a second before confidently asserting "только идиот будет тратить время на перевод этого!"

"Wow!" replied Cyborg. "What was that?"

"Russian!"

"What does it mean?"

"I have no idea!" Starfire said with a shrug and a laugh. The rest of the team laughed too. It seemed that the morning's drama was finally at an end.

"I have to say," said Robin, now calmed down, "It's a nice change of pace for Beast Boy to get us in trouble by being too _smart_ for once." Beast Boy replied with a quiet "Oh, shut up." but it was clear that he took it in jest.

"I didn't think he'd finished learning English," Raven added in her monotone sarcasm. The team laughed, except for Starfire, who was suddenly frowning.

"Please friends, do not engage in the teasing! I feel guilty for causing you all to worry, but Beast Boy must have been especially worried!" Starfire pleaded sincerely, and Beast Boy shyly smiled in response.

"Relax, Star!" Cyborg began. "You don't need to feel guilty about anything." Then, for just a moment, he got a glint in his eye, as if he was weighing the humour of what he was about to say up against the potential hurt it might cause. He quickly made his mind up; it had been a rough morning and they could all use a laugh.

"All you did was react to Beast Boy kissing you the same way that I imagine _any_ girl would."

Robin tried and failed to restrain a laugh. Even Raven let out an audible giggle. Starfire pouted.

"SHUT UP!" shouted Beast Boy, suddenly glaring daggers at Cyborg.

Everyone went silent as all eyes turned to Beast Boy. Raven caught a glimpse of his eyes, and for a second saw tears welling up in them. They could have been caused by any of his emotions that morning; guilt, worry, anxiety, embarrassment, anger. But she couldn't see them for long, because soon they were no longer looking at Beast Boy, but at a green eagle that momentarily flapped its wings in Beast Boy's place before swiftly flying out of the medical bay and down the corridor.

.

Swinging his legs back and forth as he sat on the edge of the roof of Titans Tower, Beast Boy absentmindedly picked up a stone and tossed it over the side of the roof, into the lake below. He didn't hear it land, or even see it; he just wanted to do anything other than continue sitting there, alone with his thoughts, ruminating on what this morning had been like for him. He knew he'd over-reacted and made a bit of a scene on the way out, but that was fitting enough. This entire morning had been a non-stop journey of guilt and embarrassment.

He heard the roof door open behind him and he knew who it was. Starfire would have wanted to come, but Robin would have insisted that she stay in bed for at least another hour while they made sure she was okay. After kissing Starfire twice, he knew Robin wouldn't be comfortable talking to him for at least a day or two. And had it been Cyborg, he'd have heard the heavy thumps of his footsteps long before the door opened. That only left one possible visitor. Still, it was nice of her to use the door. Rising up through a portal in the floor could have surprised him, and while his powers would've prevented any harm, he was in no rush to add 'Fell off the roof' to the list of things that had happened to him this morning.

"I kind of figured they'd send you." He muttered without turning around.

"Nobody sent me," she replied, as emotionless as ever. "I'm here because you're my friend and you're upset."

He glanced back at Raven, who was standing a few feet behind him. Her hood was down and he could see the restrained but genuine concern in her eyes. He sighed. He didn't want to add 'Was a jerk to one of my friends' to the list either.

"Sorry. I-"

"It's okay." Raven replied quietly. She took a few steps forwards and sat down next to him on the edge of the tower, and for a few seconds, neither said anything. Each waiting for the other to talk, they just sat in each other's company, enjoying the view of Jump City.

Raven eventually broke the silence. "Not to downplay what you're feeling, but… today you got to kiss Starfire twice _and_ everyone is really impressed at how smart you are. I kind of thought this would be a win for you." Beast Boy couldn't tell if her point was genuine or if it was an attempt at humour, but he quickly cleared up exactly why he was upset.

"This morning I put one of my friends in a hospital bed, Rae."

Raven stiffened. It was the first time in months that she had heard Beast Boy say something so completely devoid of humour, or joy, or hope. She could feel the guilt eating away at him, and had to momentarily restrain herself from slapping him on the back of the head for being so stupidly harsh on himself.

"That's a very one-sided way of putting it." She responded.

"It's true though."

"In a way," she answered. "But in a way it's my fault too." Beast Boy didn't look at her directly but his ear twitched for a second and he turned his head an inch or two towards her. "If I'd volunteered to go shopping with her, none of this would have happened. Same with Robin and Cyborg. In fact, if Cyborg had started making your breakfast before you arrived, you would've finished eating by the time she asked. Or she could have just not kissed you. Or Mumbo could have tried to rob a bank, and we could've been called in to-"

"Okay, okay, I get it," interrupted Beast Boy emphatically, but with the hint of a smile on his face.

"Point is," Raven continued, "What happened was an accident. It was weird, and unexpected, and we were all nervous, but it's over now and we're all okay."

"She didn't _look_ okay."

"Beast Boy," Raven stated seriously, turning to face him as she put her hand on his. He looked at her hand in surprise, and then at her, quietly taking in the determined look on her face. "You're not blaming yourself for this, okay?"

She gave his hand a gentle squeeze and then withdrew her own before a blush had a chance to form on her face. "I won't let you," she added quietly.

Beast Boy smiled – a bashful, genuine smile – and Raven smiled back and resisted the temptation to pull up her hood and retreat back into the tower. A good thing she did, because while her words had taken effect, Beast Boy's smile slowly began to falter. There was clearly something else eating away at him, and she didn't intend to leave until she had uncovered it.

She didn't have long to wait. As Beast Boy turned away from her again and went back to admiring the view of the city they protected, he quietly began to speak.

"Sometimes, I…" he drifted off, embarrassed. Raven said nothing and just continued to sit next to him, not pressuring him to keep going if he didn't want to, but making it clear that she intended to stay until he was ready to talk.

Beast Boy cleared his throat. "Sometimes, I feel like… like I'm going to hurt the people around me." He turned to face Raven again. "People I care about. Not on purpose, but… just by being me."

She could feel the sincerity and the worry in what he was saying, and she hoped he felt the same when she quietly replied.

"I know exactly what that feels like."

It was an awkward confession on both ends, and neither really knew what to say to comfort the other. They were silent again, each not sure how to respond, until Raven took the initiative.

"So, what would you tell me?"

Beast Boy looked at her in confusion, so she explained. "If I told you that I was feeling like that, what would you tell me?"

Beast Boy wasn't stupid. He knew that whatever he said to her would immediately be aimed back at him, and that Raven was predictably trying to teach him a lesson about trust and self-respect and several other things that it was easier to talk about than to believe. But she was also here for him, right now, trying to help, so he played along.

"I guess I would tell you that… you're being silly, and you have nothing to worry about, because I trust you, and I know that you would never do anything to hurt us. Because you're a hero, and…" he paused before finishing his thoughts, "you're one of the best people I know."

Raven tried to remain impassive and professional, but couldn't prevent the blush that rose through her cheeks, or the smile that grew on her lips. "Well then," she replied, "That's what I have to say to you."

Beast Boy raised an eyebrow. "Really? Even the 'best people I know' bit?" He stammered with a forced chuckle. It was an obvious attempt at self-deprecating humour, but for some reason Raven didn't feel obliged to play along.

"Yes." She replied quickly, completely serious and sincere. It was Beast Boy's turn to try to stop himself from blushing, and, suddenly aware of how embarrassed they both felt, they turned away from each other and resumed enjoying the view.

Raven had felt the anxiety and depression radiating off of Beast Boy long before she arrived on the roof, but now all she felt was joy and… still a little embarrassment, but in a far different, less negative way than before. The view from the roof really was breathtaking. When you spent so long trying to stop psychopathic magicians from robbing banks, or eight-limbed mechanical spiders from overrunning a mall, it was easy to forget that Jump City was a beautiful place to live. And the company wasn't bad either.

Raven idly wondered how many other couples were enjoying the view at this moment in time, before suddenly feeling self-conscious of her own thoughts. '_Wait, 'couples'?_' That was definitely enough time spent on the roof.

"Come on," she said, tapping Beast Boy on the arm, her voice once again flat and expressionless, "Cyborg wants to apologize too, and Starfire's probably getting worried." She stood up, and he joined her. But they had only taken a few steps towards the roof entrance before he suddenly hesitated, and she felt another wave of embarrassment from him. A smaller, less worrying feeling than she had sensed before, but it was troubling him nonetheless, and that was enough for it to trouble her.

She noticed that he had paused. He noticed that she noticed he had paused, and forced another small laugh. "Sorry, it's nothing."

Raven folded her arms. "What is it?"

"No, really, it's…" Beast Boy took one look at Raven, who clearly wasn't going to leave any stones unturned. He forced another laugh – the most hollow-sounding yet – and admitted what was on his mind.

"It's just back when Robin was asking me all that stuff about who I've kissed and whether this had happened before. For a second, I…" he tried not to blush "I really thought that I might have some kind of disease or something."

He was trying to brush it off, but Raven could feel the raw sadness behind it. Even if it had only been for a few seconds, Beast Boy had to genuinely consider the possibility that simply expressing a sign of affection was enough to land someone in a hospital bed. Nobody deserved to feel that way.

"Pretty stupid, huh Rave-MMMMMMPH!"

He didn't know what was happening any more than she did, but in a moment of weakness, several of Raven's emotions – sorrow at what he was feeling, anger at whoever was responsible, happy for the chance to prove him wrong and brave enough to try this – had united behind a common goal and forced Raven's body to act before she had a chance to realise what she was doing. And so, for the third time that day, Beast Boy found himself kissing one of his teammates. The first time had been accidental, the second time had been purely – he didn't know how to describe it, medical? – but this was a completely new experience. He was panicking just as much as he had before, but it didn't look as though he was making any kind of conscious effort to get away. Although with both of Raven's hands firmly on either side of his head, it didn't look as though he would've been able to.

Raven's emotions waited just long enough to relinquish control back to her, and she immediately had to divert every ounce of energy she had to ensuring that her powers didn't blow up everything around her. Beast Boy had seen a rough enough morning already; it wouldn't be fair to him to also have been flung several miles off the roof of the Tower as a result of her losing control of her powers. But restraining herself took every ounce of self-control that she had – so much so that she couldn't even divert any energy towards breaking the kiss. Or so she told herself.

Thirteen seconds later, when her heart had stopped threatening to beat out of her chest and when Beast Boy was beginning to weakly flap his arms as if he was running out of oxygen, she broke away. He had tasted of wildlife and pheromones. She had tasted of violets and mint leaves. In spite of being the one who had instigated it, she somehow managed to instantly return to her normal demeanour, although she had to immediately pull up the hood of her cloak to try to hide the luminescent blush on her face. Beast Boy looked dishevelled, thoroughly surprised, and as if he had just taken an extremely hard hit to the head. She stayed silent for a few more seconds out of embarrassment; he did the same because his brain was in no condition to formulate words.

Then, she lightly slapped him in the face, not hard, but enough to get his attention.

"Ah... uh… ... buh?" he tried and failed to respond, breathing heavily.

"There," Raven said in her trademark monotone. "We just kissed and I didn't pass out or end up in a hospital bed. So don't waste your time worrying about stupid things like that, okay?" She sounded slightly more aggressive, as if over-compensating for what had just happened. She was trying to avoid eye contact for obvious reasons, but looked Beast Boy straight in the eyes to try to make sure he was listening; or rather, she tried to look him in the eyes, but they appeared to be rotating in opposite directions.

"Uh… buh… guh…" he muttered, before toppling over backwards. Lying flat on his back on the roof of the tower, his eyes continued to spin as Raven cautiously stepped towards him.

"Uh, Beast Boy? Are you…" she asked, some worry starting to displace the embarrassment she was trying very hard not to feel.

And then he smiled.

It was the brightest, broadest, goofiest, most stupid grin she had ever seen on his face, and also the biggest. He still hadn't recovered enough to speak, and wouldn't for a few more hours, but he had just enough of an understanding of the situation to make one more sound.

"… Hee… hee hee hee… ha," he lay there, giggling intermittently like an exhausted madman. His eyes still hadn't completely stopped spinning in their sockets.

Blushing so hard that she almost set her hood on fire, Raven turned and swiftly headed towards the entrance of the roof, confident that her job here was done and in _desperate_ need of some meditation. Pausing as she reached the door, she turned back to say one last thing to Beast Boy, who was still lying down, laughing quietly to himself with a dazed but extremely happy look on his face.

"Just so you know, if you tell _anyone_ what happened up here…"

She wasn't sure if he was even listening.

"… Actually, say whatever you want. They'd never believe you."

Then, not wanting to waste a single second, Raven wordlessly summoned a portal and sank into the floor.

Beast Boy would remain lying on the roof of the tower for several more hours, giggling to himself like an idiot. The sky would turn dark before the eventually made his way back to his feet, and staggered back towards his room, snickering the whole way. The rest of the team wouldn't even see him until next morning, when he would be able to speak in complete sentences again, but wouldn't talk about what he and Raven had discussed on the roof. For the next three weeks through, every time she entered a room that he was in, he would look at her and uncontrollably giggle, while she blushed and made an excuse not to stick around.

Suffice it to say, he wasn't feeling depressed any more.

.

Arriving down from the roof, Raven landed in her room and surveyed the carnage with a disappointed but unsurprised glare. It was only natural that her powers would have gone absolutely haywire. Restraining them completely wasn't an option; it was just a question of where she could direct them.

As much as she was tempted to choose Robin or Cyborg, if their rooms had been trashed from top to bottom, it would raise questions that she didn't want to answer. Starfire hadn't been to blame for anything that had happened this morning. Beast Boy's room would have been too mean, although she honestly wondered if anyone would have noticed the difference. That only left one room.

Her bed had been flipped upside down, possibly more than once, her bookshelf was in several pieces, with various books scattered all over the room. Just as she was starting to think that it didn't look _too_ bad, a pillow fell from where it had been hooked over a broken lighting fixture and exploded into a shower of feathers.

Raven sighed. If this was the price of being a good friend, she supposed it was a price worth paying. Striding through the remnants of broken furniture, ripped clothes and tattered spellbooks, she decided to start on the bed first. It would have been much easier to just use her powers, but she didn't want to risk exerting herself so soon after they'd caused so much damage. In spite of how much she felt as if she should be frowning – it would take _hours_ to clean up this mess – she couldn't help but smile, even if it was only because nobody was watching. The kiss hadn't solely been for _his_ benefit. Not that she was prepared to tell him that. Yet. And although she did a much better job hiding it, Beast Boy wasn't the only one who would spend the rest of the day breaking into giggles.

'_Honestly_,' she thought, sweeping an armful of debris off of what had been her mattress that morning. '_The things I do for that boy…_'


End file.
